For the past three years, I have helped with the TEDxSpringfield event held at my company’s headquarters in Springfield, MA. While my involvement is very minimal other than the day before and day of the event, I get to attend and interact with the speakers. These two days are my favorite of the year as far as work is concerned. The speakers are fantastic and the topics, for the most part, are very energetic and/or moving. Yesterday was no exception.

The day started off with Sylena Echevarria who works for my company. Sylena’s description of packing her clothes into a plastic bag as she and her mother escaped from her alcoholic and abusive father. They left as soon as his abuse spread from her mother to her. Her mother then proceeded to eventually take care of her father, along with her new husband, until he died. It was a true story of forgiveness.

John “Ringo” Longo then spoke about music and how he has woven music into his life. Next, Bill Miller brought many tears to the audience with his talk about homelessness and how when he started, he was told that sometimes you just have to walk over some homeless to help others. The day continued with many speakers including Nick Cummings who discussed getting “unsad” as he dealt with medical woes as he grew up. The day ended with Angela Lessier who discussed crawling into bed for a month and living off credit cards while she figured out how to create, then start her new business. Each speaker was motivating and had a wonderful story to bring to the audience.

One of the best things about attending this conference each year is getting to have one-on-one conversations with attendees and presenters. It was an exceptional day.